Electrical-contact governor.



W. DEATS.

ELECTRICAL CDNTACT GOVERNOR. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 12. |910.

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W. BEATS.

ElECTRICAL CONTACT GOVERNOR.

APPLICATION man FEB. l2. 1910.

Patented July 27, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WILLIAM BEATS, OF YONKERS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ELECTRCAL-CONTACT GOVERNOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Tully 2'?, 1915.

Application filed February l2, 1910. v Serial No. 543,604.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, `W1LLIAM DnA'rs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Yonkers, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electrical-Contact Governors, of which the following is a specification.

Hy invention relates to a centrifugal governor, more particularly designated and designed for the operation of electrical contacts by centrifugal means.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide means for closing electric circuit or circuits by the centrifugal action of a fly-ball governor.

Another object is to provide means dependent upon the change of rotative speed of the governor for effecting step-by-step action at pre-determined speeds.

For the attainment of these ends and the accomplishment of other new and useful objects, my invention consists of the features of novelty in the construction, combination and arrangement of the several parts hereinafter more completely described and claimed in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a part sectional elevation of my governor. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of my invention as employed in conjunction with a motor.

Referring now more particularly to Fig. l, the governor shaft 4 of the governor G is rotatably held by the support 5 which is secured in any suitable manner, as for example, to the bearing hub 6. The bevelA gears 7 and 8 are secured to the governor shaft 4 and the driving shaft 9, respectively, thereby effecting the rotation of the governor shaft 4 whenever the driving shaft 9 is rotated. The contact arms 10 and 11 are secured to the governor shaft 4 in such a manner as to permit of the outward movement of the said arms and to prevent any longitudinal movement of the same along the governor shaft. The stop collar 12 is secured to the governor shaft 4 and provides a. limit stop for the latch collar 13 which is free'to rotate about the governor shaft. T he levers 14 and 16 are pivoted tothe contact arms 10 and 11, respectively, and are provided with the fly-balls 17 upon their outer arms and with the latches 18 upon their inner arms. These latches 18 are adapted to engage the latch collar 13. Attached to these levers 14 and 16 are the threaded eye-bolts 19 which pass through a portion of the arms 10 and 11 and which are v surrounded by the coil springs 20. These coil springs 20 are retained in position by the lock-nuts 21 and are adapted to exert a pressure upon the levers 14 and 16 such that the latches 18 are ordinarly held in engagement with the latch collar 13. These coil springs may be and preferably are of different strength so that an upward pressure exerted by them upon their respective levers, is different, thus permitting one lever to be thrown out of engagement with the latch collar without affecting the engagement of any other lever.

The lower portions of the arms 10 and 11 are provided with contacts 33, 34, 35, 36`

which are secured to and insulated from the said contact arms in any suitable and well known manner. A. contact base 22 is also secured to the governor shaft 4 and rotates therewith. rl`his contact base 22 is provided with concentric rings 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28, suitably insulated from the base 22 and from each other. The contact base also supports contact carriers 29 and 30 which are provided with swivel mounted contacts 31 and 32 respectively. These said contact carriers29 and 30 are so arranged with respect to the contact arms 10 and 11 that when the contact arms move outwardly, the

contacts 33, 34 and 35, 36, carried by the.

arms, engage with the said contacts 31 and 32. Connection is made between the con tacts 33, 34, 35 and 36 of the contact arms 10 and 11 and the concentric contact rings by the flexible conductors 37. Electrical connection is also made between the swivel mounted contacts 31 and 32 and the concentric contact rings 23 and 24 respectively by means of the contact carriers 29 and 30 and the bolts 54 and 55.

A series of fixed contacts 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 are provided and suitably located to make electrical connection with the concentric contact rings, and the terminals 44 are adapted to provide for electrical connection with the said fixed contacts.

In order that the operation of my invention may be more readily understood, it is necessary only to add that the rotation of the governor shaft 4 will cause the Contact arms 10 and 11, and the base 22, to be roshaft 4 is further increased, the other con-- tact arm may be thrown outwardly in a similar manner, making connections by means of its respective contacts. It is to be here noticed that although but two contact arms are shown in Fig. 1, any desired num-v ber may be employed and by varying the strength of the retaining springs the points of operation may be varied between any desired limits. Furthermore, it is not necessary that the arms be released in pairs as the action of each arm is entirely independent of any of the others.

In the stopping action of the governor, the contact arm last thrown out will be the first to return to its unoperated position.

This is automatically effected by means of Ithe beveled edges 45 and 46 of the latch Vcollar 13 and the latch 18 respectively, and

by means of the compression spring 47 which permits a slight give or upward movee ment ofthe latchlcollar 13 when the beveled" Y faces come in contact.

At the time, or before the governor has reached a stop position, all of the contact arms Iwill be in their original unoperated position with their latches 18 all engaged by the latch collar 13 and ready for immediate action.

An embodiment of my invention is shown by Fig. 2 in which my governor is employed to effect the acceleration of the motor M. In this exemplification there is shown a main switch S,acceleration magnets B and C, a sectional resistance R and the necessary circuit connections. The motor M is provided with the slip rings and the gov' K ernor Gis attached to the hub 6v of the motor and rotated by means of the motor shaft 9 and the bevel gears 8 and 7. As soon as the main switch S is closed,

and the contacts 48, 49, controlled thereby, effect a completion of an energizing circuit 'to the motor M. Under the starting condii tions all the sectional resistanceJ R is in circuit with the motor M by way of the slip rings 50. Immediately after the closing of the contacts 48 and 49, the magnet C is energized and the contacts 51, 52 and53 controlled thereby, are joined, thus short-circuiting a portion'of the sectional resistance R. By this time the motor has started and is rotating the governor G. As the speed of the motor and the governor increases, the

`\ l Maaate contacts 31, 33, and 34 are joined, thereby short-circuiting another portion of the sectional resistance R and permitting a still further increase in the speed of the motor. This in turn effects the operation of the governor device to unite the other contacts 32, 35 and 36, thereby short-circuiting the entire sectional resistance It. The concentric rings are not shown in this figure for the sake of simplicity.

Although I have thus described my invention as applied to a motor, it is obvious that it may readily be applied to other apparatus. y

@ne of the special features of my invention is that there may be any desired number of actions atany predetermined speeds and that the use of such a device is very advantageous in the operation of electrical contacts in that a snap action of the contact arms is obtained at each step. Such operation is especially adaptable to the acceleration of electric motors; In addition, other apparatus may be set into action when the governor is at any predetermined speed, independently of or in connection with the operation of the motor.

Another feature is that my invention may be applied in any place where there are revolving parts. This facility of operation `does not make it necessary to be applied' to any particular place; although it may bc applied to any class of motors it is especially adaptable to an alternating current motor where, for instance, it is desired to start the motor as an induction motor and then, when it comes up to speed, to change over to a synchronous motor. I wish, therefore, not to be limite-d to the herein described construction, combination or arrangement of my invention as it is evident that those skilled in the art may make various changes without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. In an electrical switch, the combination of a governor comprising weighted arms, means for driving the governor, contacts carried by the governor arms, con- 'y tacts to cooperate with the governor con the windmg of the magnet B 1s energized tacts, means cooperating with the governor arms to cause the contacts operatively to close in regular succession as the speed of the governor increases, and means for latchingsaid governor arms against centrifugal movement until a predetermined governor speed is reached.

2. In an electrical contact device` the combination of a centrifugal governor having revolving arms, contacts carried by the arms, revolving contacts to coperate with the contacts on the arms, latching mechanism for holding the contacts on the revolving arms out of engagement with the other contacts,

los

Liaaaea and controlled by the centrifugal action of the governo-r arms to allow the contacts on the arms to engage with the cooperating contacts in regular succession during the acceleration of the governor.

3. 1n an electrical contact switch, the combination of a governor comprising a rotatable shaft, a base rotated by the shaft, con tacts mounted on the base, centrifugally controlled governor arms, contacts o-n the arms coacting with the contacts on the base, a latch collar, latches associated with the govv ernor arms and engaged by the collar to hold the cooperating contacts out of engagement, and means to cause the latches on the arms to be released from latch engagement in a predetermined succession as the rotative speed of the governor arms continues to increase.

4. A centrifugal contact governor comprising a rotatable shaft, means for rotating the shaft, a contact base and contact arms secured to the shaft, a latch collar mounted on the shaft, latch levers mounted on the contact arms engaged by the latch collar, fly-balls carried by the said levers, and re- A silient means for retaining the latch levers in engagement with the latch collar until the speed of the governor has attained a predetermined value.

5. A centrifugal electrical contact governor comprising a rotatable shaft, contact base and contact arms secured to the shaft, a latch collar mounted on the shaft, latch levers mounted on the contact arms engaged by thellatch collar, fly-balls carried by the vsaid levers, and resilient means of various strengths for different latch levers provi- -sionally to retain the same in engagement.

with the latch collar.

6. A centrifugal governor comprising a rotatable shaft, means for rota-ting the shaft, a contact base and contact arms secured to the shaft, a. latch collar mounted on the shaft, latch levers mounted on the contact arms engaged by the latch collar, fly-balls carried by the said levers and springs for retaining the latch levers in engagement with the latch collar until the centrifugal action of the fly-ball exerts a greater pull than that of its corresponding spring.

7. In an electrical contacting device, the combination of a rotatable shaft, a contact base and contact arms secured to the shaft, a. latch collar mounted on the shaft, latch levers mounted on the contact arms and engaged by the latch collar, fly-balls carried by'the said levers and operable at predetermined speeds to release the levers from the latch collar, resilient means for opposing the" centrifugal action of the fly-balls and the contact arms, contacts carried by the said contact arms, and cooperative contacts carried by the contact base.

8. In a centrifugal contact device, the

tened to the said levers and passing through openings on the arms, and coil springs surrounding the bolts tending to keep the latch levers in engagement with the latch collar.

9. 1n a centrifugal governor, an electrical contacting device, the combination of a rotatable shaft, a contact base and contact arms secured to the shaft, a latch collar mounted on the shaft, latch levers pivotcd on the contact arms and engaging the collar` fly-balls carried by the said levers, and means resisting the centrifugal action of the ly-balls to different degrees to allow the latch levers successively to be disengaged from and rengaged with the latch collar independently of cach other.

10. A centrifugal electrical contactingdevice comprising a rotatable shaft, a contact base and contact arms secured to the shaft, contacts on the contact arm, contacts on the contact base tocooperate with the contacts on the contact arms, a series of concentric contact rings secured to the contact base, electrical connection between the contacts on the contact arms and certain of the contact rings and between the contacts on the contact base and others of the rings, said contact arms being operable in arprcdetermined order whereby circuit connections are automatically closed in a predetermined manner through the said contact rings.

11. rlhe combination of electrical switch contacts, means for rotating said contacts about a common axis, one of said contacts being movable by centrifugal force into engagement with the other contact, a latch holding said movable contact against such movement, and a weight carried by the latch and operable by centrifugal force to release said Contact and permit such movement.

12. The combination of electrical switch contacts, means for rotating the contacts about a common aXis, a latch holding the contacts separated, and a weight carried by `vthe latch and operable by centrifugal force dial movement, and means Jtor automatically releasing said device when the speed of the rotary member reaches a predetermined value.

v 15. rThe combination of a member rotatable about a vertical axis, a switch arm pivoted to said member for movement about a horizontal axis, coperating switch contacts carried by said arm and said rotatable member, a device for holding said arm against movement about its pivot, and means to automatically release the switch arm when the speed of said rotary member exceeds a predetermined value.

16. The combination of a rotary member, a'switch arm carried thereby and movable relatively to said member, cooperating switch contacts carried by said arm and said member, a latch for holding said arm against such movement, and means operated by centrifugal force for releasing the latch and bringing said coperating contacts together.

17. The combination of a member rotatable about a vertical axis, a switch arm connected thereto by a horizontal pivot, a latch carried by said member and holding the Licence switch arm from movement about its pivot, and a speed governor operable lto release the latch.

18. The combination of a 4rotary member, a switch carried thereby and comprising a switch arm pivoted to said member, and movable by centrifugal force into closed position, a catch for holding said switch arm in open position, and means to automatically release the catch when the speed of' said. rotary member reaches a predetermined value.

19. rlhe combination of a rotary member, a plurality of electrical switches carried thereby and operable by centrifugal force.

into closed position, a device for latching the switches open, and means for automatically causing said switches to be released in succession as the speed of said rotary member reaches predetermined increasing values.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM DEATS. Witnesses: v

CLARENCE BRoADi-IURST, GEORGE D. ROSE. 

